GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 35 - June 2016

interesting. Also, my gut feeling told me to go with this deal. I regret giving the guys (especially Andre Lavold, who I had a good connection with) from Optimizer the feeling we already had a deal, but on the other hand, they should have given me the correct value from the start so that I wouldn’t have even had to talk to anoth- er party. It became a bidding war, and I think GiG just is a bit more my DNA type. The most interesting part is that the total value offered by Catena at that point was higher, but I knew GiG’s bid could poten- tially be better, as 30% of the deal was giv- en to me in shares. The shares have grown 50% since the beginning of March. I’m a happy man. Let’s be frank here: €4.2 million is a lot of money. Do you have any plans for it? It’s actually a bit more than €4.2 million. By the completion date (April 1), when the deal was actually finished, the value was €5 million, due to the portfolio value in- crease. Having that in your bank account from one day to another is an indescrib- able feeling. Money doesn’t necessarily make you happier, but it definitely is a recognition of what you have achieved and it makes life much more comfort- able. I intend not to spoil it. Although I like cars, I’m not going to buy a Ferrari. I live in Holland, and here we think in an egalitarian way. We have a saying here: “Act normal, and you are acting crazy enough  already.” So, what’s next? We have just acquired the largest forex affiliate community web- site in Holland, www.topbinaireopties.nl, and that is now where our ambition lies: to make this as big as possible! It’s still in the build-up phase, so we need to hire someone to expand the site. However, I see more value in forex for now, with the beautiful asset we purchased. You posted on the GPWA Forums that Sports-Livezz.com was for sale in mid- March. Was that site not included in the sale of Gaming Innovation Group? If not, have you had any luck with that sale? This is actually a very sad story. Sports- Livezz.com belonged to Jesper Engels, former affiliate director of ComeOn. Jesper passed away some months ago and everyone was in despair, especially his wife and two kids. It’s unbelievable as he was so young. I had 30% of the shares of Sports-Livezz.com but his wife wanted to sell the website. All the money will of course go to them, but unfortunately no one has purchased the asset yet. What are some of the lessons you’ve learned that affiliates looking to enter the Dutch market should know? I am not going to make anyone wiser, of course. I think in any market you need to know how your customers tick. Every country has its own DNA and thus its own ap- proach to business. You won’t succeed in Holland if you don’t know how the peo- ple think here and what sales tactics work. Most of the sites you list on your GPWA profile are casino sites. What are the most popular games for casino players in the Netherlands? I’d say the old-fash- ioned slots are very popular (Random Runner, for example). But the NetEnt games do very well here as well. One of your sites (www.roulette.nl) is devoted entirely to roulette. How dif- ficult is it to produce content for a site that focuses on just one game that re- quires very few player decisions? The site actually belongs to someone else, but we manage the website for him. It is very difficult to keep writing fresh and inter- esting content. Indeed, there’s not much to be said about a straightforward game like roulette. Luckily enough we found an expert — or freak, depending on how you AGE 31 HOMETOWN Amsterdam, Netherlands LIVING IN Amsterdam, Netherlands FAVORITE FOOD Risotto MUST-READ BOOK Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien (all three!) SITES www.topcasinobonus.nl www.forexfox.nl www.topbinaireopties.nl www.gokkastenspeelautomaten.nl www.roulette.nl www.toplivecasino.nl www.bingotop10.nl www.toponlinecasino.be www.voetbalvoorspellen.be www.onlinegeldmachine.nl www.onze11.nl www.topcasinobonusar.se www.spelautomatskungen.se Joris (front left) with Unibet Affiliates in Brazil for the World Cup after the Netherlands defeated Spain 5-1. 39 GPWA Affiliate Interview Series